Mac VPN

1) My company's IT Manager asked me to help the creative department connect to our Windows Server from their Mac laptops while outside the company.

My guess is that the artists want to be able to (1) connect to their work Mac and access files. (2) connect to our network to access company wide shared drives.
I'm not sure if they also need to be able to "control" their work Macs from their laptops.

2) In addition, I'd like to setup my Mac to do the same. With the exception being that my work computer is XP, and not a Mac. I'd also like to be able to control my work computer's apps remotely.

I did this long long ago within my home network using VNC. But now this is all beyond my little brain.

I downloaded the remote access app from Microsoft, and it seems what I need for situation #2. But try as I might, no connection is made. I also setup the VPN for situation 1 and 2. It connects, but then what?

Should I be seeing remote HDs in the finder? Do I have to do anything to my hardware router to allow all of the above??

When I VPN to work, I then need to know the IP address of the machine I'm planning to "Connect to Server..." since Appletalk and Bonjour don't seem to broadcast the networked computers over a VPN connection. In most cases it will be the GraphicServer (which has a static IP address).

Since I manage the network here and the internet connection is only 1.5MB (T-1) (slow, yuk), I suggest that files are copied from the server to person's local machine, edits are done locally and then re-uploaded afterwards.

ProRattaFactor
(Retro-infused games for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac)

Good question about the screen sharing. I'm not sure in a mixed OS environment. You may need to use a 3rd party app from the laptop. I doubt the 10.5 screen sharing function will even work unless her 10.4 system has been configured to allow vnc. Furthermore, the speed and screen refresh of full-screen control may not be that fast if any of the two networks involved have a slow ISP. Regardless, if she's able to do full-blown screen sharing, she should be able to connect to the server all within the virtual window.

She should contact the network admin for the Snap Server's IP. If it's dynamic, the network admin may need to make it static. (Those NAS devices tend to have web browser admin, so it should be a fairly quick process.)

ProRattaFactor
(Retro-infused games for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac)

Once she is into the VPN she can do everything she would normally do within that server such as grab bonjour names and view the local network, so she shouldn't need to have an IP. She would connect to the NAS through whatever means she would do if she is on the local network.

Tiger has the ability to turn on remote access through the sharing preference pane, this will allow a tiger machine to connect to it and control it.

kodex Wrote:Once she is into the VPN she can do everything she would normally do within that server such as grab bonjour names and view the local network, so she shouldn't need to have an IP. She would connect to the NAS through whatever means she would do if she is on the local network.

If that's the case, how do I configure my company's network to broadcast bonjour and appletalk devices for people that connect via VPN? Are there certain settings that need to be enabled in the VPN router? Since I enabled VPN for my company, I've never seen the computer names in the "Network" folder.

ProRattaFactor
(Retro-infused games for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac)

This depends a lot on your type of VPN and the configuration you use. With OpenVPN for instance, every machine has a virtual TAP network port with an IP address specific to the VPN. You can include machines which are on the same network as the server using a sort of NAT which is configured within the VPN configuration files.
If you are using VNC or something to control a machine however, then that machine's ability to talk to its local network is unchanged and it can talk to local server as usual.